Macri: This is going to be the last government of populism in the history of Argentina

(CNN Spanish) – Mauricio Macri, president of Argentina between 2015 and 2019, continues to be a figure in the so-called “crack” of his country’s politics. Macri, who presents the book First time, in which he reviews his four years in power, he spoke with Camilo Egaña on CNN en Español. Will he run again for the Presidency? Although he did not give a concrete answer, he says he is optimistic that there will be a “second half of change.” Macri was elected in 2015 under the Cambiemos coalition and aspired to re-election with the Together for Change alliance, defeated by Alberto Fernández. Now he points to the future of his political project.

“Our government from 2015 to 2019 was the prologue for change,” he said. «With this return to the past with Kirchnerism, people are learning, they are understanding, and that gives us the opportunity to return to power with more political support, with majorities. We are going to build that solid edifice of progress.

Macri describes this situation as an “opportunity to get out of populism for good.”

First time was published in Argentina with the indignation of the former president’s detractors, the enthusiasm of his followers, the announcement of a boycott of some bookstores, with the conjectures of some and others about a possible return to Macri’s politics, and with the approval of Mario Vargas Llosa, 2010 Nobel Prize in Literature, who said he had a magnificent impression of what he had read.

Macri says he feels optimistic that there will be “a second half” for his government project and his supporters to return to power with more political support. The former president also says that “Argentina is on the eve of ending its relationship with populism.”

“For me, this is going to be the last government of populism in the history of Argentina,” said Macri, who was president of Boca Juniors and is the current executive president of the FIFA Foundation.

Macri believes that the government of President Alberto Fernández is not transparent in detailing why his country does not have vaccines like the one manufactured by the Pfizer laboratory, with which they had a strategic advantage, according to the ex-president.

Interviewed on Saturday by CNN en Español, President Alberto Fernández assured that Argentina did not sign an agreement with Pfizer because the pharmaceutical company would not comply with the delivery of all the purchased doses.

“You have to defend democracy every day. This pandemic has been a wonderful excuse for authoritarianism, “he said.

Macri said that he considers that he was wrong in not giving greater powers for the management of fiscal finances to the former Minister of Finance.

The vaccine in Florida

In February 2021, Mauricio Macri said that he would not get vaccinated against covid-19 until the last of the essential workers received the vaccine. However, the former president of Argentina changed his mind and was inoculated in Miami. Why? «First, all those who are at risk in Argentina were vaccinated. Also, being in Miami at the conference to which Lenín Moreno invited him, I find out that in a neighborhood pharmacy in Coral Gables, two blocks from the hotel, he was vaccinated (…) I considered that the least I could do as a contribution It was to go and pay for a vaccine in the United States to free someone in Argentina, because it will take months for all Argentines to be vaccinated, “he said.

With information from Camilo Egaña and Paz González.